Hospitalization
"Luke, what on earth happened to you?!"
"Ugh — Yerna? How did you find me here…?"
Luke recoiled as Yerna burst through the hospital room door. The memory of her firm instruction to stay put at home rose unbidden, and he dropped his gaze, thoroughly abashed.
Yerna's voice rose.
"I was so worried I dumped my shift on a coworker and rushed home — and you were gone! Nothing but some bizarre letter left behind. Do you have any idea how frantic I was?"
"Well…"
What Yerna held out was the note Luke had left. It read as follows:
I am stepping out briefly — there is something I must find at the World Tree. I expect I shall return before nightfall. I am sorry to have imposed upon you, and I am grateful.
The trouble was, it had been written in the ancient script of five thousand years past. What Yerna could actually make out looked more like this:
■■ ■■■ there is something I must find ■■■. ■■ nightfall ■■■ return before ■■. imposed upon ■■ sorry, and grateful.
"I thought you'd run away! What even is this letter? A runaway note?"
"It meant I was going to the World Tree for a short while, and that I expected to be back before nightfall…"
"Then why the 'I'm sorry' and 'I'm grateful' at the end?"
"Because I was sorry, and I was grateful…"
"…"
After hearing Luke's explanations for the remaining illegible words as well, Yerna rubbed her brow and thought, Does this kid just not know how to write?
The penmanship itself was rather elegant — but elegant penmanship alone was useless. Yerna concluded that Luke had never been taught letters properly and had simply taught herself from books, which was how this mess had come about. She sighed.
"All right. So that's what it was. Haa… But Lu. Unni told you not to go anywhere, didn't she? Don't you remember?"
"Ugh… I… I truly did not expect it would come to this… I only meant to be gone a short while, and I am hardly a child as you seem to think…"
"Lu."
Yerna cut short the stream of excuses. Luke fell silent.
At the look on her face, cold sweat beaded on Luke's brow and he had no choice but to avert his eyes.
Why am I the one being scolded…?
She had told him not to go out, true enough — but he was not actually a child. Was outward appearance truly so decisive? Perhaps a spell to accelerate growth…
Sensing that Luke's mind was wandering, Yerna spoke firmly.
"Lu. You did wrong, didn't you?"
The atmosphere left no room for argument. Luke exhaled and answered as he must.
"I did wrong…"
"You won't do it again?"
"I will not do it again…"
"Promise Unni."
"Very well. I give you my word."
"Don't just say pretty things every time — this time for real. A real promise, okay?"
Watching Luke nod, Yerna smoothed the hair of the small figure lying on the hospital bed and sat down beside him.
A sudden thought struck Luke. By any honest accounting, he was nothing more than a somewhat unusually featured orphan. There was no particular reason Yerna should go to such lengths on his behalf. He would become an Archmage someday, yes — but at present he was barely a first-circle mage. When she had first shown him kindness, he had not even possessed a circle.
Was it because she was a Forest Keeper? Yet it felt different from mere professional duty.
The question formed, and he could not help but ask it.
"…Why do you worry over me so?"
"Because I'm worried, that's why. Does there need to be a reason? The world is a dangerous place."
"…"
Luke cast his mind back. When had someone last fretted over him? There was scarcely a more pointless exercise in the world than fretting over an Archmage. The pure sensation of being worried about felt strange and novel.
The world was dangerous, she said. True enough — fortune had so far brought him only decent people, but he well remembered how many worst-case fates awaited a child wandering alone. Kidnapped by slavers. Robbed. And so on.
Yet so many years had passed since he had last needed to care about such things, and the pressure of reinscribing his vanished circles had left no room for the thought. Seen that way, Yerna's worry was only natural. At least for now, he wore a child's form.
Luke looked at her with a faint smile.
"You truly are kind. To worry so over a child who is not even your own."
"…"
Yerna, still stroking Luke's forehead, thought to herself: Ah. This child still isn't used to kindness directed at her.
It was not an absurd misunderstanding. In truth, Luke was unaccustomed to pure goodwill. Give and take; every kindness had its reason. After more than a century of such a life, unmotivated kindness was not something he could readily conceive. That was why he carried an almost compulsive need to repay every favor received, and why he had declared to every person he met that he would return the debt someday.
Yerna, knowing none of this, simply found Luke all the more pitiable in her mind.
"…Lu. Listen…"
"Hm?"
The words If you're all right with it, you can keep staying at my house from now on were on the very tip of Yerna's tongue when—
The hospital room door burst open.
The doctor entered with Gerard.
"You're the guardian, I take it?" the doctor asked. "What's your relationship to Luke?"
Yerna answered.
"Yes. I'm Yerna Risphind. I work as a Forest Keeper in Luke Forest. Luke is… under my temporary care until I can find a facility for her."
"I see. Then for the moment you qualify as guardian. I'm Hans Gerdam, Luke Irushi's attending physician."
"Hello — Gerard Colson. I gave Luke a brief tour when she visited our facility."
After a round of handshakes, Yerna lowered her voice to a near-whisper.
"Um, Mr. Gerdam, Mr. Colson — could we step outside for a moment…?"
"S-so… about the hospital bill… how much will it be…?"
Discussing money in front of a child felt a little undignified for an adult, so she had brought Gerard and Hans out into the corridor. Yerna simply did not have the means to shoulder a large medical expense.
Reading the anxiety on her face — What if I can't afford it? — Gerard stepped in.
"Ah, no need to worry about the hospital costs. This was an accident caused by our side, so it'll be covered by our insurance."
"Whew… That's a real relief, at least…"
Of course, it would have been best if the accident had never happened at all. But Yerna tilted her head at the doctor's next words.
"That said — the test results show nothing wrong. She can be discharged right away. Her mana circuits are fine, and the arrays haven't collapsed. If it weren't for Mr. Colson here, I'd never believe she'd been exposed to ultra-high-pressure mana. She's that perfectly intact."
"Oh — is that so? That's truly wonderful news…"
Yerna sighed with relief. Then Hans's next remark made her tilt her head again.
"But more important than that — at present, a circle is inscribed on Miss Irushi's heart."
"A circle? You mean… the kind I know?"
"Yes. The magical method that was popular long ago, before we used class magic. From the age of circle magic."
"That's impossible."
They all knew the dangers of circle magic well enough. The chief reason it had fallen out of use was that far too many practitioners had ruined themselves or lost their lives trying to inscribe circles. Even those lucky enough to succeed faced problems. Without a systematic framework, everything depended entirely on the user's insight and talent. And that was not all — if the circle was not stabilized with every casting, the mage would be consumed by their own mana. Who would willingly use an unstable magic that risked their life each time it was cast?
Consequently, every instructional text on circle magic had been banned as forbidden literature, and people stopped inscribing circles on their hearts.
"And you're saying that child has a circle on her heart?"
Yerna's voice was thick with worry. A circle — far too dangerous for a young child. It was like living with a bomb strapped to one's heart. That was why anyone who somehow ended up with a circle inscribed underwent removal surgery. No one wanted to risk dying from a single slip in mana control.
"Yes. A very clear circle has formed — so perfectly that it can't be removed. What's more, her mana sensitivity is absurdly high. The amount of mana stored in the circle… is far beyond what a child's body should be able to hold."
"Is there any way to tell when that circle was inscribed?"
"Hard to say… By their nature, circles don't reveal when they were carved. Have there been any side effects in daily life?"
"Side effects meaning…?"
"Sudden complaints of heart pain, vacant expressions, sudden fevers, loss of consciousness or memory…"
Something flashed through Yerna's mind at Hans's examples, and she blurted it out.
"Memory…? Ah — Luke lost her memories."
She had remembered nothing of the time she was kidnapped.
Hans nodded at Yerna's answer.
"Is that so? It may have been from then, then."
Gerard lent weight to the conjecture.
"I think so as well. According to my junior mage's testimony, it seems Luke was the one who resolved the mana-leak incident… and I find it hard to believe she could have performed that level of mana control on the spot. She must have had similar experience in the past — experience handling mana by will alone…"
"I see."
Yerna looked at the closed hospital room door with a puzzled expression.
Luke… why did you ever have to handle mana without a wand?
"In any case, there's nothing more the hospital can do for her. You're free to discharge her immediately."
When Yerna finished the conversation and opened Luke's hospital room door, the sight that greeted her was Luke propped against the bed, diligently reading the book she had bought. The picture was so endearing that Yerna smiled faintly as she approached.
"Lu, how are you feeling?"
"I am well."
The fact that he had not looked up from the book suggested he rather liked it.
"Really? Then shall we head back? They said you can be discharged today."
"Yes, we ought to return. This place can hardly be comfortable for you either."
Luke closed the book with a soft thump and held up the cover for Yerna to see.
"However, Yerna — this is not a magical text."
"Hm?"
Luke regarded her with a faintly dissatisfied expression.
"This is a fairy tale about a mage. Not a magical treatise."
The gradually altered forms of the characters had made reading difficult, so Luke had concentrated hard on the book — only to realize after a few pages:
This is a fairy-tale retelling of the legend of the Immortal King, Renie Arinseia. There is not a single word about magical systems in it.
No wonder the illustrations had seemed so lavish. The disappointment matched the height of his earlier expectations.
"Th-that's not…? Do you not like the book, maybe?"
"…No. It is merely…"
But Luke could not bring himself to blame Yerna outright. He sighed once and thought, Still, it is rather entertaining in its way… seeing someone I know appear in a fairy tale.
The Immortal King, Renie Arinseia. The immortal hero blessed by the gods. One of the central pillars of the old subjugation war, and someone with whom Luke had once been rather close.
Watching Luke briefly sink into reminiscence, Yerna perched on the edge of the bed and asked,
"Lu, there's a mage in there with the same name as you. Is it not fun? Don't you like mages?"
"…"
Luke rested a hand on the closed book and thought.
Luke Irushi set out on the subjugation war alongside the Immortal King Renie Arinseia and Cale Propson. They tracked the Demon King for twenty-one days and severed his head in two. Cale Propson fell in that battle; the immortal hero Renie Arinseia returned and became king; Luke Irushi received a noble title and the appellation of "Archmage," lived as an academy headmaster, and in his later years withdrew into seclusion. A story I know all too well. Because I am that Luke Irushi.
But even if he spoke it aloud, who would believe him? He would be fortunate merely to escape being treated as a madman.
"Yerna. There is one thing I should like to ask."
"What is it?"
"Rene— that is, Renie Arinseia. Where is she now?"
"Huh? That's just a fairy-tale story, isn't it? She must have died ages ago."
"…Renie is not immortal?"
That could not be. She had received immortality as a power bestowed directly by the gods. Having slain the Demon King and become a demigod, her immortality should have grown stronger, never—
"Then what of the Arinseia Kingdom?"
"It fell about two thousand years ago. Why do you ask?"
"…"
Ah, Rene. So you, too, were only human after all. That will of yours to make Arinseia eternally radiant — in the end, it crumbled before the years.
Seeing the stricken look on Luke's face, Yerna belatedly realized her mistake.
Oh no. Did I just crush a child's sense of wonder?
It was the expression of a child who had just learned that the gifts left on Spirit Day were not from spirits at all, but from Mom and Dad. Yerna resisted the urge to smack her own forehead and forced brightness into her voice.
"Lu, on the way home, want to stop by a bookstore? You can buy any book you want!"
"…Truly?"